Mumsnet Talk

Just went upstairs and DD (21months) was at the top of the stairs. Thank god I shut the gate out of habit. I had put her in her cot not 10 mins before. No one else in the house except DS (6month)
I cannot see how she could have got out. The rail comes to her chin. Maybe a couple of inches below.
What can I do?

Sounds weird!
Put her back in the cot and watch through a crack in the door?
If she is climbing out you might need a gate on her room.

My DS could climb out his cot by 18 months . Like you, first I knew of it was finding him wandering around. But later saw him do it, he just held the side and swung his leg up to the height of his shoulder then wriggled over it!

Time to start leaving the stair gate on

Should I take the rail off the cot?

My dd was in a bed from around the same age because she started to climb out. I just took the side of the cot away and a mattress on the floor because she fell out occasionally. Better from that height than over the bars. She managed to climb out of a travel cot way before she was 2.

Yes I had one of those climbing out of the cot toddlers too . Once they can climb out I'm afraid it's time to put them in a bed . It's just not safe for them to be climbing out of the cot ..

I put lots of cussions on the floor at first, and hoped he wouldn't do it again, but when it became regular, put the side of the cot in the lower possition and just made the upstairs of the house child-proof. It was hard work keeping him in bed though. My DSis never had this problem as she put both of hers in baby sleeping bags (the ones where their arms stick out) which stiffled their climbing abilities!

Yup both mine were cot climbers by 18 months - sorry

You can always use a foldable bed rail (e.g. the Lindam one) on a cotbed, that way you can keep using it a while longer. Big beds (and/or matrasses in front to cushion a fall) take up much more space

My friends dd started climbing over at 18 months. And she was tiny for her age. My ds (same age and bigger build) had no inclination whatsoever and slept safely in his baby cot till he was 4!! lazy bones

!iya, safety first take her out of cot & put mattress on floor, thats what i did saves the risk of falling a height that could relly injure them

Oh dear. It never even occurred to me that she would be able to climb out. Will put her on futon in spare room tonight and take the rails off the cot bed tomorrow. The monkey.

lala . bless you .

Yep I had one of them too, very odd as she could climb out of her cot but couldn't walk

DS did this at 18 months too. Came downstairs,opened the sitting-room door,grinned at us,and went back to bed. He never did it again,but we didn't react. Just looked at him.

I know lots of friends dc who did this. Mine never bothered. He is 3 now and still wouldn't. I was wondering, though.... If they can climb out of the cot, is the stair gate even safe? Would they climb over that, too? <worries for op and others>

Yes patience you are right , our stair gates did become a hazard . DS thinks he is an acrobat .

DD1 did this at about 18 months...the first I knew of it was when I went up to go to bed and she was asleep on the floor in my room with lipstick all over her. Apparently she could also climb the front of the chest of drawers in my bedroom too .

Converted the cot to a bed the next day and was lucky in that she was too short to reach the door handles so shutting the bedroom door kept her (and my make up) safe for a few more months.

DD1 is 4 now and can climb pretty much anything. My brother took her to an adventure playground earlier this week where she was scaling rope walks designed for children aged 10+. [Relief I wasn't there to look emoticon]

Take the bars off, much safer than her climbing over them.

I remember putting my twins to bed in cots that were about two foot apart and woke one morning to find them asleep in one cot together. I was shocked as they were only about 11 months old

Mine both took quite a bit longer to manage stair gates. They're a bit higher.

My DD is a real climber and I am concerned she will be able to do this soon!

Can I ask, were your kids in sleeping bags or blankets? DD hasn't figured out how to take the bag off et so wonder if this is what has delayed her!!

Ds did this at 15 months. DH didn't believe me, so I put ds in his cot and said "ds can you climb out?" he launched himself over the side in a sort of cross between a Fosbury flop and a commando roll. Dd never did this, stayed in a cot until 3 ish.

My DS did this at 16mths. we left it for a bit with the side up & climbing over until one day in a fit of piqué he threw himself over head first which was really scary. We took the side off immediately (thankfully it was a cot bed) we put a gate on his door to stop him wandering at night and he figured how to do the same shimmying over the bars trick by the time he was 20mths . We've just resigned ourselves to having a climber he's 3.5 now and actually he's scared us a lot but has never done himself any harm.
By taking away most restrictions it takes away the challenge which they seem to like.

My DS did this at 13 months old - totally unexpected at the time but looking back we should have- he was walking at 9 months and was way too inquisitive! Anyway he fell out and cut his head open on the edge of a plastic toy box. Needed gluing together slept in a proper bed ever since though.

One of the many reasons mine never had cots.